from The Conversation — this post authored by Graham White, University of Sydney

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull recently commented that when it comes to Australia’s energy supply:

“policymakers have put ideology and politics ahead of engineering and economics”.

It’s not uncommon for a politician to accuse other politicians of being subservient to ideology on some issue. But to couch this accusation in terms of a choice between “the economics” or “just ideology” is problematic.

We should be highly sceptical of claims that the pronouncements of economists about real world economic problems stand above any ideological influence. This might in turn allow for a more sober assessment of what economics can and can’t deliver.

There’s a belief, still present within the economics profession and which still finds its way into the education of undergraduate economics students, that economics possesses a box of tools that are value-free, or ideologically uncontaminated. And that somehow this allows for economic statements about real world problems that are free of ideology.

The idea persists in part because it serves a purpose, for some, in providing a benchmark for measuring the “scientific progress” of economics as an intellectual discipline.

But things are less clear when you look more closely at how the box of tools is used.

Take the proposition, for example, that lower prices for goods and services would benefit the consumer, using some measure of consumer welfare. Or that increased competition would under certain conditions lead to lower prices.

Leaving aside the fact that the choice of measure of consumer welfare might itself not be completely untainted by ideology, using these propositions to diagnose real world problems inevitably brings ideology into play.

For example, justifying a policy to promote “efficiencies” in production as a means of achieving lower prices, which might also require people losing their jobs, would warrant some additional reasoning about society’s objectives underpinning the production and distribution of its material wealth.